By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Specialty Industries holds its annual employee recognition day Wednesday afternoon and invites the public to tour its facilities during an open house.
The official mission of Specialty Industries of St. Joseph is to provide meaningful work for people with disabilities.
CEO Byron Myers says once his employees learn a task, they perform it with an eye for detail.
“They may find an error in printing on a box or some kind of a flaw with packaging that you and I wouldn’t recognize,” Myers tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “But, because they’re so in tune with details we have had them catch very small flaws that had slipped by our customers.”
Myers says the company wants to add meaning to the lives of those it employs.
“By offering employment, that’s one way to do that,” Myers says. “But we also really try to go out of the way to provide additional socialization; to get out into the community, to go to a Mustangs game, to go to a Robidoux Resident Theater musical production, things like that, that a lot of our folks just wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”
Specialty Industries will honor Jimmy Smallwood who has worked there for 50 years as well as Wesley Bird who celebrates 55 years with the company. Specialty Industries employs approximately 100 workers.
Myers says he hopes the work done at Specialty Industries brings meaning to its employees’ lives, adding everyone has burdens.
“And our employees have some burdens that they’re carrying through no fault of their own,” Myers says. “And so, I think anything that we can do to add quality to their life and help their lives be meaningful, I just think it’s important; it’s important for all of us to do the best that we can to try to lift each other up, no matter what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
Myers says the customers of Specialty Industries give the company high marks. Myers credits the detail its employees bring to their jobs.
The open house and tours take place a two o’clock Wednesday afternoon with a program beginning at 2:30.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The 87 workshops in Missouri employ nearly 5,000 people with disabilities.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.